July 22 '08: In a press release from the Environmental Protection Agency, the federal government announced a new report which examines the health, settlement dynamics and impacts of climate change on communities in the United States - broken down into regions. The report covers areas ranging from population redistribution to local, state, regional and national disaster recovery in the face of increasingly severe weather. Many of the findings suggest increased economic, infrastructural, and societal pressures.

Among the findings, the report found that five vectors were of most importance: heat, extreme weather, health, quality of life and the West. For instance, increasing heat in the Midwest, Northeast and the West has stressed young and elderly populations particularly in urban areas; as more severe storms hit parts of the country (archived story here), health, infrastructural, economic and cultural stresses will "have costly impacts on individual health and welfare, as well as government services, infrastructure and economies," the EPA release read.

Changes in climate and extreme weather will also "tax water supplies in the rapidly growing west, increase threats of wildfire and damage weather-related economies such as agriculture, fishing and recreation" the release read.